No ideas here. Other than I've been trying for about 26 years now!: I think my parents didn't do enough of "how to comfort myself" when I was still little. then it was a power struggle and now, well it is just a darn hard habit to break. As in I think i suck my thumb when I go to sleep and that's it. But I worry about doing it in front of my dd -- that she'll pick it up. so maybe i will finally break the habit??

thank goodness i don't have any other bad habits -- smoking, drinking, drugs -- i would be totally hooked and not able to quit LOL

I sucked my thumb until I was about 13, I finally made myself quit so my friends wouldn't see LOL. My mom weaned me 6 weeks before she had my brother, and as soon as I saw him nursing I screamed "They're mine!" and started nursing again (I was 19 months old). I was attached to the boobie, and my thumb, so now I understand Zach's need for something to suck. He sucks his thumb a little bit when he's out with his Daddy and no boob is available, but I WISH he'd do it to pacify and soothe himself. I think they need something to help self-soothe, at least a little bit. Julianna used to take a pacifier, but one day she just decided she didn't like them anymore, and now they're gone! I don't think sucking on a thumb or a pacifier is a bad habit at all. They either suck on a pacifier, finger, or thumb, or nurse constantly like my son. He has been attached to me for the past two days, I think his mouth hurts from the teeth he's cutting. Fun times!

remember kids are doing the best they can, just as we are. babies this age thumb suck for comfort (mine choose the breast). over here in my home if there's something happenning i don't like, generally i can show a different behavior to do, or i can just let it run its course, which is what i usually do. you can give him something else to chew on but the thumb is the most convenient for you and him. if you make it into an issue that becomes part of your relationship then he will use it as a tool to get your attention and then it sticks around much longer for lots of reasons.
just to warn y'all, the closest that comes to that kind of soothing for my kids is touching their nipples or penises or vulvas. which generally comes later. thumb sucking is socially minor and considered acceptable in this society compared to investigations of organs.
(or peeing in receptacles, or running naked carrying sticks....just you wait!)

Thanks Island Mommy, that is what i'm trying to tell myself.
i guess i'll be taking her in for a blood test to make sure. i myself am not vaxed for mumps and have nver had it, so i want to know for sure how careful i need to be.

call and ask, they may not take a blood test anyway. my doc probably wouldn't even want us over there cos of contagion. it is generally a mild viral illness for kids, infection of salivary glands. pain reliever might help, or teething tablet chamomile or arnica preparations. my book says the defined gland swelling is only present in 2/3 of cases anyway, so many people have had it though they don't remember. reasons for an immediate doc would be lethargy, convulsions, stiff neck, reasons to see the doc that day are pain and swelling in testicles, abdominal pain and vomiting, dizziness and difficulty hearing. your window of seeing if you have it is about 16-18 days after exposure, and contagion period is from 2 days before symptoms to disappearance of swelling, about a week into it.

Holy cow...I just came across this thread. There are tons of posts in here! lol.
Anyhoo, I'm Liz and my ds is Anton. He was born 12/22/02 even though he wasn't due til 1/17/03! Personally, i think that they messed up on my due date but who knows. heh.

I haven't had a chance to read through the posts but I just wanted to know if anyone else is dealing with early 'Terrible Two's'??! Ack, if i hear another whine, my ears are going to start bleeding! rofl.

erin's doing swimming lessons with us on saturday morning. she LOVES her bath so we figured...why not try the pool? and she fusses a bit for the first 5 minutes or so and then giggles like crazy when she's splashing her daddy. very cute, if i do say so myself.

was it leah who said that zack (or foster dd?) threw tantrums only on the rug? yeah. erin's doing that now. it is just so :LOL

I'd be very careful of anything that may interefere with the body's natural way of taking care of the illness. Be sure to get it without fever reducer if you can. Of course, you may already know this. Just my .02 .

We've been doing a lot of walking lately. I mean A LOT. A few miles every day. I feel so great, Owen LOVES it and it keeps me sane, not to mention I've already lost 7 lbs. We are out enjoying ourselves rather than inside trying to climb things, kwim? I got a Tough Traveler on Monday and WOW! It's the most awesome child carrier I've ever used. Our walks are even more fun now that I don't have to push the stroller all around. That got a little prohibitive at times. I highly recommend them. I got a very good deal on it on ebay too.

AVa has gone from the worlds mostperfect agreeable baby to queen whiny pants. Everything that comes out of her mouth is this whine scream thing. It awful. OS awful that everytime she does it someone jusps to make it stop. Therefore it is very effective so she goes streight to it. viscious cycle . . . .

The truest answer to violence is love. The truest answer to death is life. The only prevention for violence is for the heart to have no violence within it. We cannot prevent evil through any system devised by mankind. But we can grapple with evil and defeat it, but only with love—real love.

Welcome Liz ... we haven't hit the psuedo terrible two's yet but we are having some issues with screeching..sometimes its cute..like when he is sitting in the car seat making his hands "screech softly" to one another..but other times its not so cute..like when we are leaving the playground. :

Within in the last month Scarlett has turned into another baby! Up until then she was so quiet, patient... Now her favorite word is "NO" even when she wants something. She throws tantrums and is totally in your face when she wants something, like she is saying 'right now mom!' And she is so hitting her sister for no apparent reason (probably payback), getting into things she isn't supposed to etc... It is fun to see her personality developing and watching her become more assertive, but a lot more challenging too!

He's enjoying the screeching, whining, and hitting habits. I know his mouth hurts, and I know he's frustrated because he can't tell me what he wants, but the constant bad mood thing gets old quick. He gets his way a lot because I don't have the patience to listen to him scream. ( :embarrasment) Sometimes I feel like I'm constantly yelling at him, or Julianna! Although, they do a lot of really cute things, too... Zach has really started to like "babies". He hugs and kisses stuffed animals and dolls, and a couple days ago he went up to Julianna and kissed her and said "baby!" Awwww!

I cut out a bunch of pictures of babies (nursing, crawling, laughing, crying, sleeping., etc.) from all my parenting magazines and put them in one of those little picture books. The kids LOVE it, Zachary turns every page and says "baby... baby.... baby" LOL.

DD loves her babies too. she has two stuffed baby dolls that she likes to carry around with her. when we leave the room she says baby, so i get one. then she says baby, baby, and i get her the other one. :LOL
she hugs them and kisses them and pats them on the back like she is burping them.
and she likes for me to hug, kiss and rock them too.

we have numerous "baby" books, so she can turn the pages and say baby, baby, baby, ad naseum. :LOL

she also likes to carry around a framed baby picture of herself, when she was about 2 weeks old. i'm not sure if she knows this is her, or if she thinks it is just another baby.

The nagging started about 1 month ago with Giovanni. It's like a fake cry with no tears. And when I look at him and laugh, he stops and laughs with me as if to say Yeah I'm faking it.

And talk about Baby, well Giovanni has Gavin to kiss and hug all day long. He leaves slobbery kisses on Gavin that I have to wipe off. Gavin just loves them because he always smiles when he sees Giovanni coming his way. They have these high pitch screaming sessions as if they are talking about how they will wake mommy up tonight and who will wake up first. Its so darn cute.

DD has a "Joanne". (DH named her, apparently after his grade 6 sweetheart). We do not go anywhere without Joanne. She is a hard small plastic doll who is naked most of the time as this is DD's preference.

We got a bunch of toys from my SIL and Joanne was one of them. Personally, I would have chosen something a bit softer, but I had nothing to say about this one. DD found her and latched onto her when she was about 9 months old. They've been inseparable ever since.

She now feeds Joanne, gives her a bottle (although she doesn't get one) and changes her diaper.

It's funny, Crystal (my 7 yr old foster DD) has a hard plastic naked doll, too. No matter how many times I try to put cute diapers or clothes on her, I always find her naked again. Crystal's left arm is paralyzed, and this doll's left arm is broken. For awhile I kept trying to tape it back on, but I'd find it off again in no time LOL. This doll has dirt stains, a broken arm, and no clothes, and the kid loves her to death! So funny! Zachary hasn't really latched on to one "lovey", unless you count my breasts LOL. I had a blanky that I LOVED, and I wish Zach had something he could hold and cuddle to help soothe him... Ah well, such is life!

we get the clothing catalog hanna andersson (not sure why, i never buy anything LOL)....and it is erin's FAVORITE thing to read. I think because so many pics of babies/kiddos/families. She now points out the "uppy" (puppies) on all of our books. makes a mama proud.

and....on saturday she was practicing for the nursing gymnastics meet she hopes to compete in. In this case -- the nurse and roll event. I said "Erin do you want mom juice or do you want to get in your crib (for bed)" she said "juice"

on backpacks -- we have a kelty one like the tough traveler. My dh wanted one that had a permanently attached bag for diapers, etc. So we got that one. We love, love, love it. My dd loves to look forward when we walk the dog. The stroller is not practical where I live in winter. Even the jogger just doesn't do 3 inches of snow well.

I looked at the Kelty. I got such a great deal on the Tough Traveler though. Dh used it yesterday and didn't like it. Oh well...he doesn't have to, I guess. I think it's wonderful and it really has opened up a lot of great new options for us--things we can do now since we don't have to have the stroller with us all the time, kwim?

I'm at my wit's end... What are y'all doing for a bedtime routine? And I hate asking this since I know a lot of you have graduated to letting your kiddos fall asleep on their own, kudos to you. But dd was still nursing to sleep in bed with me-- at least we had gotten to the point that I could get back out of bed once she was asleep. But now the nursing gymnastics have gotten out of hand for that. We do a nightly bath, and that used to sooth her, but now it's just an aquatic playground. I gave her massages as an infant, but as soon as she got mobile she hated staying still for that, and still does. Dh suggested bedtime stories, but we spend so much of our day reading that it doesn't seem like a "nightly" activity for her, and she gets revved up. Every night the past week I've had to resort to walking her, and she is just too long and heavy for me to newborn cuddle anymore. So does anyone have any ideas? Maybe this is just a phase... c'mon, just be a phase!

I still suck my thumb at 23. The nurse at the hospital when dd was born warned me not to let that "bad" habit develop, I told her my thoughts on it, is it any wonder we didn't get along? Dd doesn't though, and no loveys yet either, though I had a blanket my mom finally took away in middle school...

Mona, so sorry to hear Kathryn is fighting off illnesses. Whatever it is I hope she stays cheerful and it passes quickly.

I can almost always trace dd's "terrible twos tantrums" to something she ate.

Hello all! I haven't had time to read through a lot of the posts but thought I'd jump in and try to catch up later. I often post on the Multiples board here at MDC and am taking the very rare extra moment I have to surf some of the other boards here.

My name is Karen and I'm a SAHM to three dd's. Haven is 3 1/2 (9/4/00) and Lillie and Faith are 15 1/2 months (12/16/02). My girls (the little ones) are still co-sleeping and bf'ing quite often. They love to walk, run, climb, talk (babble and a couple of "real" words), read books, play with their sister and basically run me ragged. They are monozygotic (identical) twins...I carried them to 38w3d and both were born vaginally weighing 6 lbs. 13 oz. and 7 lbs. 1 oz. We're not having any big issues right now other then frequent night nursing but I know that's normal from my first dd. I go between being frustrated by it to being okay with it. I often say "This too shall pass..." to myself a million times a day. I look forward to getting to know you all better!!